Department of Chemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Arctic Avenue St. John's, St. John's, Newfoundland, NL, A1C 5S7, Canada.
Mouse Imaging Centre, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Metabolomics. 2023 Nov 21;19(12):96. doi: 10.1007/s11306-023-02061-3.
Plastics used in everyday materials accumulate as waste in the environment and degrade over time. The impacts of the resulting particulate micro- and nanoplastics on human health remain largely unknown. In pregnant mice, we recently demonstrated that exposure to nanoplastics throughout gestation and during lactation resulted in changes in brain structure detected on MRI. One possible explanation for this abnormal postnatal brain development is altered fetal brain metabolism.
To determine the effect of maternal exposure to nanoplastics on fetal brain metabolism.
Healthy pregnant CD-1 mice were exposed to 50 nm polystyrene nanoplastics at a concentration of 10 ng/L through drinking water during gestation. Fetal brain samples were collected at embryonic day 17.5 (n = 18-21 per group per sex) and snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen. Magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance was used to determine metabolite profiles and their relative concentrations in the fetal brain.
The relative concentrations of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), creatine and glucose were found to decrease by 40%, 21% and 30% respectively following maternal nanoplastic exposure when compared to the controls (p < 0.05). The change in relative concentration of asparagine with nanoplastic exposure was dependent on fetal sex (p < 0.005).
Maternal exposure to polystyrene nanoplastics caused abnormal fetal brain metabolism in mice. The present study demonstrates the potential impacts of nanoplastic exposure during fetal development and motivates further studies to evaluate the risk to human pregnancies.
日常生活材料中使用的塑料作为废物在环境中积累，并随着时间的推移而降解。由此产生的颗粒状微塑料和纳米塑料对人类健康的影响在很大程度上尚不清楚。最近，我们在怀孕的小鼠中证明，在整个妊娠期和哺乳期暴露于纳米塑料会导致 MRI 检测到的大脑结构发生变化。这种异常的产后大脑发育的一个可能解释是胎儿大脑代谢发生改变。
确定母体暴露于纳米塑料对胎儿大脑代谢的影响。
健康的 CD-1 怀孕小鼠通过饮用水在妊娠期以 10 ng/L 的浓度暴露于 50nm 聚苯乙烯纳米塑料。在胚胎第 17.5 天（每组每个性别有 18-21 个样本）收集胎儿大脑样本，并在液氮中迅速冷冻。魔角旋转核磁共振用于确定胎儿大脑中的代谢物谱及其相对浓度。
与对照组相比，母体纳米塑料暴露后，γ-氨基丁酸（GABA）、肌酸和葡萄糖的相对浓度分别下降了 40%、21%和 30%（p<0.05）。纳米塑料暴露后天冬酰胺的相对浓度变化取决于胎儿性别（p<0.005）。
母体暴露于聚苯乙烯纳米塑料导致小鼠胎儿大脑代谢异常。本研究证明了在胎儿发育过程中暴露于纳米塑料的潜在影响，并促使进一步研究评估对人类妊娠的风险。
